


Moving on from Neverland

by UnapologeticallyMeatwad



Category: Digimon - All Media Types, Digimon Adventure
Genre: Character Study, Digimon Adventure: Last Evolution Kizuna Spoilers, Gen, Hurt/Comfort, Post-Digimon Adventure: Last Evolution Kizuna (Movie), no beta we die like men
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-08-31
Updated: 2020-08-31
Packaged: 2021-03-06 17:34:54
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,510
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/26222734
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/UnapologeticallyMeatwad/pseuds/UnapologeticallyMeatwad
Summary: The rules are blatant and clear — Prisoner Menoa Bellucci may have zero access to any kind of technology on account of her… abilities.
Comments: 3
Kudos: 11





	Moving on from Neverland

**Author's Note:**

> Loved this movie so much - couldn't stop thinking about Menoa though, so I decided to take matters into my own hands haha.

The rules are blatant and clear — Prisoner Menoa Bellucci may have zero access to any kind of technology on account of her… abilities. 

At the beginning, the important people seem to understand exactly what she did. Child abduction, kidnapping, cyber terrorism, is what they pinned her on. But as time moves along, they stop caring. New guards seem to think she just can’t be near technology because she’s just very smart. 

What they forget is that she’s also quite charming. Menoa Bellucci is a master at her art — which is (unfortunately) manipulation. She’s not proud of it, but it’s how she gets herself some time at the prison library. The excuse is that the books she’s requesting are always the wrong titles, and it would save the staff time to just let her use the computer herself.

She feels sorry for the guard. Her actions might get him fired, and where she’s going… she won’t have a way to pay it forward. But she is already dealing with a life sentence. She’s pissed off the wrong people over the past few years. So there’s really only one place for her to go.

The shitty desktop from the ‘80s hums so loud when Menoa opens the gateway to the Digital World. The screen goes bright blue and she hears the guard behind her grunt in surprise. She twists her head back to look at him, the blue light overcoming her ability to see him. She says something, but it’s too late. She’s already out of this world. No apology, no goodbye. As always — she’s just too late. 

She turns back towards the darkest of the blues, but by the time she’s there it’s gone and she’s surrounded by the black. She floats in the abyss for a moment, mind moving quickly, sweat building around her forehead. She’s sure her heart is beating twice as fast. 

This is like a dream come true; she’s never been to the Digital World. She knew that if she did, at least back then, she’d convince herself she could find Morphomon. But Morphomon is dead, and she’s almost nine years out from that day. It’s time to grow up.

But she can’t do it on Earth. Not as scientist Menoa Bellucci whose life work can only go towards… well… Neverla— why is she still there? It’s been too long. The Digital World shouldn’t be  _ this _ slow. She’s aware the computer she used is on dial-up but that doesn’t mean it should take hours to pass through the gateway and —

— a little square hole opens up in the abyss far above her. It glows bright white and it gets bigger faster, or rather, she is getting closer. Rapidly. She feels a pull around her waist as she’s dragged towards the square where it becomes more and more obvious that the boy genius she manipulated to get her data, Koushiro Izumi, has caught her in some kind of cyber trap. She sees his dead black eyes focused so intently on the computer, and the hint of a plastic bottle of oolong tea pulling away from his lips.

She grimaces and jams her arms out, and somehow that’s enough to stop the breakneck speed she’s on and it slams her into place. Koushiro looms over her, staring down. “Sorry,” he says from his desk. “But we can’t let you escape, Menoa.”

She grits her teeth. What is she supposed to tell this kid? The truth. Ha, he’d hardly believe her.

A claw materializes in the air, pure black and outlined in white. She’s familiar with the design: Apocalymon, she learned of him in her research when building Eosmon. The claw drifts close to her, twitching to ensnare her. 

“Hold up, let me talk to her,” a deeper voice says, and Koushiro slides off on his rolly wheels, quickly replaced by the boy who stopped her: Taichi. Though it’s only been a few months since everything happened, Taichi looks much older than before. She bets it’s because Agumon left his side shortly after their last evolution. “Hey. What are you doing?” he asks her like he’s trying to talk one of his friends out of drinking and driving. It kind of pisses her off. 

Maybe she did have a complete (and embarrassing) mental breakdown in her final battle with the Digidestined, but that doesn’t mean these kids  _ know _ her. 

Menoa doesn’t say anything. There’s nothing to say. She’s tired, and she just wants to  _ go _ . She hates feeling so powerless and without autonomy.

Taici nods, as if satisfied. “You’d monologue at me if you had a scheme, I bet. Koushiro, I’m going to let her through. Are you okay with that?”

Koushiro sighs and his hand manages to make it onto frame to wave her along. “Okay, but you’re making the cover story.”

Taichi nods and looks at Menoa playfully, giving her a thumbs up. The patch in the abyss closes up and she feels that rushing around her waist again. The deep black shifts to an icy blue and when she looks down, she can see Neverland floating miles below. It’d be so easy to go back. It might even be a happier existence for herself, it’s hard to say. 

No.

Taichi and Yamato made a sacrifice to rescue the others from this place. Even now, Menoa doesn’t know if she understands why they did such a thing. Why they sacrificed their own happiness when they could have just given themselves into her Neverland. Sure, personal growth and development doesn’t fly here but… she can’t remember ever being happy since Morphomon left her. Personal growth is overrated. 

She trusts Taichi and Yamato more than she trusts herself. They believed in something, and she doesn’t really believe in anything. So she lets Neverland rush away from, and finally this dark, scary, cold place she’s been trapped in opens up and she’s in the bright blue sky of File Island. She drifts down slowly, scanning the island for details, until she lands in the dirt.

It’s quiet. No Digimon in sight. In her dreams, she imagined coming back here and that Morphomon would be waiting. Foolish and stupid. Still, she finds herself brushing away the tears as she walks away from her initial landing.

It takes hours to find the Primary Village, but it fits what she imagined in her research. It’s like a nursery expanding into its own city. Rubber blocks extend towards the sun like skyscrapers, and eggs are all over the place, resting in little baskets. She bends to watch one of the eggs, and dares to run a hand along its shell.

“Hey, stay away from her!” a gruff voice shouts. It startles her. She turns her head and sees an irate Elecmon staring her down, a Botamon sleeping in his arm, a Leafmon leaned against his cheek from his shoulder, and a Nyokimon playfully bouncing up and down his springy ears. 

Menoa smiles at him. “I’m lost, and want to help you raise Digimon.”

Elecmon raises an eyebrow, and then strokes his chin. “Can you hold this Botamon? I need to play with Nyokimon.”

Menoa nods and takes the slumbering Botamon from him, holding him with both hands very gently. It’s so squishy, like her fingers are enough to… um… pop it. Picking up on her confusion right away, Elecmon mimes a cradle with his arm and purses his lips. 

“Right,” Menoa sighs, and shifts into cradling the Botamon, a little too aggressively at first. It takes her some to slow down and learn how to do this right. Months really, it takes her months. There is so much to learn, as there are also many things to unlearn. She’s thankful that Elecmon was so willing to take her in.

Nine years ago, she vowed to protect the relationship between Digidestined and partner Digimon, and it was impossible. Her methods were megalomaniacal, and all she did was hurt people. She sped up the clock for Taichi and Yamato, it seems that the experience was actually healthy for the two of them, but she can’t forgive herself for that. 

Digidestined grow up and partner Digimon pass on. It’s like having a pet. 

But what she can do is protect Digimon, she can protect them until they can find humans with potential to grow up with. It might be the best thing that she can offer this world after what she’s done. But she can only guess at how effective this is… until years pass and a group of young Digidestined visit the Digital World.

Apparently there is a new great evil to be destroyed, and it’s up to these kids to do it. When the kids cross through the Primary Village and she sees their Digimon — they may be in their Child forms, but she recognizes all of them, as they recognize her. They wave and she waves them. Maybe she cries a little. 

It’s the first time since Morphomon left that she feels like a human. That she feels love. And it’s enough to keep going.


End file.
